Chapter 251: Bloodthirsty Forest

"Grandfather, what on earth did those elves do to make you so furious?"

Olaf truly could not fathom why his grandfather had suddenly flown into such a rage. Though he feared Toby in this state, his reason told him he had to get to the bottom of it.

"It has nothing to do with you. Just do your own job and let us handle these matters. Get ready to start; the plan will not change because of some ultimatum from those long-eared fools—unless they can literally uproot the World Tree themselves. But if they were capable of that, they wouldn't be here issuing us ultimatums."

Toby, his eyes obscured by thick hair, cast a glance at his approaching grandson, bluntly telling him not to concern himself with their business and to just prepare for work.

"But..."

Olaf hesitated, still intending to say something.

"I told you to operate that mechanical arm, so do it properly. If you make a mistake and drop any vital parts, I will hang you from that very machine for seven days."

Knowing Olaf’s temperament all too well, Toby played his trump card.

"Fine! Heh, even being hung from it would be worth it!"

Olaf immediately stopped pestering Toby, his eyes gleaming and saliva nearly dripping from the corner of his mouth. The sense of anticipation completely eclipsed all other emotions, including his curiosity.

"Go on, do a good job, and don't disgrace our Bronzebeard clan."

Giving Olaf a shove on the back, Toby watched his grandson trot toward the mechanical arm control console until he disappeared from view. He then turned his head back to lock eyes with one of the site's chief supervisors, Jenkins Ironaxe.

"Do you have a solution?"

Jenkins scratched his thick, tangled hair and asked Toby.

"The plan continues. Do not stop. I will go and negotiate with those elves; I want to see what kind of madness has taken hold of them. Suddenly demanding we stop utilizing the World Tree—it’s absurd."

Toby cast aside the rage that had overflowed moments ago, his demeanor turning much calmer. As a renowned sage among the dwarves, Toby had formulated many of the details for the "Deep Excavation Project," which was why Jenkins had asked for his counsel.

"I hope those long-ears have some sense. If they truly intend to use force as their ultimatum suggests, I will show them exactly why Ironforge was established on this frontier."

Toby walked into a room within the space, opened a chest, and retrieved a massive hammer. Its surface shimmered with a bright silver luster—it was plated in several centimeters of mithril.

"Calm down. You’ve brought that thing out; be careful not to escalate the conflict too far."

Jenkins glanced at the hammer Toby had produced, his eyelids twitching. "Shatter" was the name of this weapon. Its mithril composition, which possessed anti-magic properties, combined with an adamantine core, was enough for a sufficiently strong wielder to crush anything in their path.

"It’s been a long time since I’ve used this weapon; it’s time to get some exercise. This time, it isn't us who are overstepping, but those long-ears. If it really comes to a fight, we dwarves have never been afraid of anyone."

Toby said this casually, shouldering the hammer. Carrying the ultimatum sent by the elven messenger, he headed toward the train outside; he was going to meet those elven envoys.

...

On the outskirts of the elven capital of Liahim, within the Primordial Forest, a squad of elven rangers was leaping through the branches, racing toward a specific part of the woods.

"How much further!?"

"We'll be there in five minutes!"

"I don't know if we'll make it in time. It’s too sudden. The state of those Ancient Trees of War has already begun to change; even the vitality carried by the World Tree's branches can no longer soothe them. Hurry to provide support."

"That squad of rangers happens to be veterans at handling those rampaging Ancient Trees of War, but there aren't enough of them. This is going to be trouble."

As the elves sprinted at high speed, they communicated with one another, synthesizing the messages sent by animal couriers to analyze the current situation.

"Boom!"

A violent roar echoed. In the distance, several trees were suddenly flung into the sky, and a cloud of dirt and dust billowed up, covering a vast area and obscuring what was happening inside.

"Damn it..."

The rangers witnessed this terrifyingly powerful attack, their expressions darkening further as they increased their pace.

"Watch out!"

The fastest elf leaped nimbly from the branch of a tree, stepping off the trunk to gain leverage and changing direction to rush toward the explosion.

But the moment he stepped off an exceptionally tall and thick tree, an urgent warning from a companion came from behind.

"Swish!"

The sound of air being torn by a rapidly moving object reached his ears. His heart tightened; he quickly recited a natural secret incantation. Green light appeared on his arms, and he drew the short blade from his back, flinging it upward with all his might.

"Pfft!"

The sound of something being sliced echoed. The elf saw two sections of thorns, severed by his thrown curved blade, graze past him. Green sap, similar to blood, flowed from the cut surfaces.

"Thwack!"

Another muffled sound followed, much heavier than the last—the sound of a blade biting into wood. The object that had launched the surprise attack from above had been struck, but it did not stop; the whistling of air in his ears continued unabated.

"Grawr!"

He looked up, and a massive mouth filled with sharp teeth entered the elf's field of vision. A hiss accompanied by the spray of foul-smelling saliva followed.

Descending from above was a grotesque creature. Its head was replaced by a giant flower; no eyes were visible, only a mouth filled with jagged teeth in the center. A long, flexible tongue covered in barbs flicked within, and saliva sprayed from the gaping maw like rain, hitting the elf's face.

Its overall form appeared humanoid, its body woven from tangled, thick vines, while its limbs were flexible, whipping thorns. The creature's "left and right hands" had already been severed by the elf's blade, and now it was lunging to bite the elf's head.

"Bang!"

A fist wreathed in green light was driven by the elf, shoved straight into the creature's mouth. His arm and fist were sliced by sharp teeth and the barbs on the tongue, but as the fist was completely swallowed by the maw, the green light erupted.

A massive, chaotic growth of vines and weeds burst forth from the creature's mouth, violently forcing open the jaws that were attempting to snap the elf's arm. Natural Secret: Wild Growth.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Several sharp whistling sounds pierced the air. In this brief moment, the elf's companions had already drawn their longbows and fired arrows imbued with power.

Arrows glowing with a pale green light struck the creature's vine-woven body one after another. The green light spread wantonly through the gaps in its form, and as the light grew more dazzling, the creature's body quickly withered.

The power of the arrows came not only from the energy they carried but also from their sheer kinetic force. Struck repeatedly by the heavy projectiles, the monster was sent flying.

The maw that had swallowed the elf's arm was forced to release it, leaving the elf to pull his limb free with the help of the wildly growing plants.

"Attention, there is more than one of these monsters here. They are surrounding us. Stay alert and guard yourselves; don't let these things, which mimic the very aura of the forest, ambush you. Their physical strength is not to be underestimated."

The elf who had been attacked first leaped back into the center of the group, scanning his surroundings vigilantly.

Having experienced the creature up close, he could detect the presence of similar monsters better than his companions. They were using their resemblance to the forest's aura to evade detection, hiding in every direction...

"Rustle, rustle..."

Along with the faint movements came a distinct smell of blood. The rangers of the elven support squad formed a circle, focusing their attention on the surroundings. Their heightened senses gradually began to pick up the large number of monsters nearby.

The creatures with giant flower heads emerged from everywhere: between the canopies, within the soil, in the crevices of rocks, and more. Most of the monsters' maws and thorn-limbs were stained with blood and scraps of flesh, looking as if they had just finished a slaughter.

A few of the monsters were even more direct—some were dragging the half-eaten carcasses of deer or wolves, occasionally lowering their heads to tear off a bloody chunk of meat with their maws.

Others held prey that was not yet dead, the victims struggling frantically but unable to escape the binding thorn-limbs, being devoured alive, bite by bite, until they finally perished.

"These plant-based lifeforms... I have never seen such things."

"Such existences certainly did not exist in the Primordial Forest before. This must be the result of the recent mutation."

"This forest has become so strange. It is growing increasingly bloodthirsty. This is terrible..."

Back-to-back in a tight circle, the elves exchanged words, their voices heavy with a gravity that could not be measured as they faced the encroaching swarm of monsters.

They had previously dismissed the forest’s growing volatility, but the creatures before them now made them feel, with chilling certainty, that this woods had become a stranger, no longer the sanctuary they once knew.

"In this situation, we cannot spare a thought for the Ancient of War; send a messenger back to alert the other ranger squads, and tell those capable to provide us with support."

An elf signaled the team’s courier, who nodded and unstoppered a small vial at their waist.

Inside was a bird with wings tucked tight; the elf whispered the message into the bottle, and the creature immediately burst forth, beating its wings to soar rapidly into the sky.

It vanished toward the direction of Liahaim, the elven capital.

"Thwip!"

But just as the messenger bird skimmed over the canopy, several slender "branches" lashed out from the foliage, piercing the bird with lethal speed before dragging its carcass into the dark thicket.

"Damn it..."

An elf spat the words through gritted teeth; the situation had worsened, for not only were there enemies before them, but unknown entities lurked within the very boughs of the trees.

Drawing their curved blades in unison and abandoning their bows—useless against these plant-based abominations—the elves braced themselves for a fight to the death.

...

"Boom!"

A colossal fist hammered down, and the resulting shockwave and flying debris sent a scrambling elf tumbling into the trunk of a nearby tree.

"Cough, cough!"

The violent impact shattered ribs and bruised organs; blood, flecked with fragments of flesh, spilled from the elf's lips onto the forest floor, the metallic tang of iron rising from throat to nose, leaving her dizzy and reeling.

"Move, Sif, move!"

A frantic, feminine cry echoed from nearby, accompanied by the relentless, deafening thunder of the earth being pulverized; the rampaging Ancient of War was hunting her sister, the only other member of their two-elf suppression squad.

The sisters were renowned for their expertise in calming frenzied Ancients, which was why they worked as a pair rather than the standard five-elf unit.

This had been intended as a routine mission to pacify a single rogue Ancient.

But when Sif fired the branch of the World Tree toward the core of the Ancient, which was slaughtering the creatures of the Origin Forest with mindless fury,

she had expected the usual tranquility to follow, yet was met instead with a second, unceasing barrage of blows.

The unexpected assault had sent jagged rocks from the impact shattering into Sif’s leg, and the resulting fracture slowed her, which was why she had failed to evade the aftershock of the latest strike.

They had been locked in a stalemate with this mutated Ancient—which was impossible to soothe, possessed a violent intensity, and moved with a fluidity far beyond its kin—for far too long, surviving by a hair’s breadth, yet the reinforcements they had summoned remained absent.

"Ugh, ah..."

Struggling to rise from the dirt, the searing pain from her leg and the overwhelming weakness in her body made every movement an agony.

Clinging to a nearby tree to pull herself up, Sif looked toward her sister, who was still drawing the Ancient’s ire.

In the next heartbeat, Sif’s pupils constricted; her sister, who had been dancing through the trees, dodging the falling fists with miraculous grace, suddenly froze.

The cause of that stillness was a sudden, explosive proliferation of vines erupting from the Ancient’s crown.

The vines seemed to have been waiting; the moment her sister leaped from the Ancient’s descending fist, they shot forth in a suffocating web, ensnaring her in mid-air.

How could she have known the Ancient possessed such a power? The momentary lapse in focus, combined with the premeditated, lightning-fast entanglement, bound the leaping elf tight.

"Ugh, ah, let me go!"

Sif’s sister struggled with all her might, but though she was a mid-tier knight, her path was that of a ranger; lacking the raw strength to break free, she remained trapped.

As she was secured, the Ancient’s wooden hand reached out, fingers splaying wide to snatch her into its grasp.

"No, don't!"

Sif’s eyes burned with terror as she drew her bow, firing an arrow wreathed in green light directly at the massive wooden fist.

But against the colossal scale of the Ancient, the shot was pathetic; it pierced the bark of the fist without even drawing the creature's notice.

The Ancient slowly tightened its fingers, the immense pressure crushing the elf within.

"Aaaaaaah!"

A sharp, piercing scream erupted from the wooden fist, only to be cut off abruptly—the final sound Sif’s sister would ever make.

Bright, crimson blood began to leak from between the Ancient’s fingers, shattering Sif’s sanity; the sheer volume of blood left no doubt that her sister was gone.

"Waaaaah!"

Clutching her head, Sif let out a broken wail, as if feeling the agony of her sister’s final moments; her bow fell to the earth, and with her body broken and her spirit shattered, she lost all will to resist.

The Ancient raised its blood-slicked fist to its own crown, letting the gore stain the canopy red, savoring the life force it craved.

The humanoid face carved into its trunk was painted in blood, turning its once-gentle, peaceful features into a mask of grotesque, demonic malice.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Its root-like legs hammered the earth, causing the forest to tremble with every step, a terrifying display of power that cowed all living things nearby.

Seeming to realize Sif had abandoned all resistance, the Ancient slowed its pace, lumbering toward the elf, who sat slumped against a tree, her eyes dead and hollow, emitting only meaningless, broken sobs.

The vines, which had no business growing upon an Ancient, reached out the moment they were within range, dragging the elf from the ground and binding her tight as they pulled her toward the creature.

The giant hand opened once more, reaching for the helpless, shackled Sif.

"Whoosh! Boom!"

Just as the giant hand was about to crush Sif into a pulp, a massive boulder was hurled from the nearby woods with incredible velocity, slamming mercilessly into the Ancient’s arm.

The earth element detonated inward, the sheer force of the impact—a third-tier spell, "Stunning Boulder"—causing the massive Ancient to stagger.

In that split second of hesitation, a long blade flashed like a streak of light, severing the vines with the clean precision of a razor cutting air, freeing Sif from the Ancient’s grip.

A blurred figure surged forth behind the telekinetically controlled blade, snatched Sif by the collar, and vanished into the depths of the forest before the Ancient could even react.